October 2014 Net Worth Update

With the S&P down for the month, I didn’t think this was going to be a particularly good month for my net worth calculations, and I was correct.  As I mentioned last month,for the first time in years, I have some debt I have to get rid of.  I think I only mention it to make myself feel better, but while I have the liquidity to pay everything off it seems like a terrible Idea so I created a debt repayment plan:

1. Step One – End of this week get the AMEX down to where it has to be (leaving a little bit over a grand).
2. Step Two –  Pay off the Disney Card ASAP.  It is a small card, with an interest rate.  There is no reason to keep a balance on it.
3. Step Three –  Get AMEX down to $0 and try to keep it there (I say try because it is my main card and so it has auto payments).
4. Step Four – Pay off the cell phone and mattress purchase.  While they are at 0% for those small amounts there is just no reason I should even have to think about them.
5. Step Five – Keep Chase Sapphire Card under $1,000 balance
6. Step Six – Attack Bank of America aggressively.

About 2 weeks after creating this plan, my daughter was born and I had missed payments on the 0% accounts.  After getting the fees reversed, I decided to just pay off the two small zero percent balances since keeping track of them were a pain in the ass. In the end what was I really saving?  The amount just wasn’t worth it.

My goal is to pay off a grand per month.  This past month I paid off $1,689.   

Calculating my Net Worth

My Assets

• My Cash Savings Accounts – I only really count my emergency savings since everything else is ear marked to be spent elsewhere.  This amount is lower than what I would like to be.  I am hoping to move it up to a comfortable level with my bonus at the end of the year.
• My 401(k) – Just keep throwing part of my paycheck at my 401(k) even though I sort of hate my 401k.  For the past few months I have been buying and selling within this account…I just posted my actual returns from this pure market timing technique.
• Random Non-Qualified Investment Accounts – This thing has TUMBLED but I am proud to announce I am DONE with gambling on penny stocks.  My gambling will be kept to casinos (and some of my holdings in my investment club).
• The Wife’s Roth IRA – This account only holds to 2 funds. An index fund of the market and a dividend paying fund.
• My Dividend Investment Portfolio – Easily my favorite part of my financial empire hut.
• Home Value – A lot of bloggers seem to stress over home value.  In my old place I just rounded to a number that I thought I’d sell for (I was off by less than 1%).  I am just going to keep using my purchase price for at least the next year.
• My Traditional IRA – I started to actively trade this account lol.  Not proud.  I just made the financial confession that I was speculating in some really shitty stocks.  I am done with it – and will roll out when I can.

My Liabilities

• My Mortgage – Every so often I think about putting money towards the mortgage but I always back off.
• Law School debt – A while back I paid off the much smaller of the loans I have a while before this category makes any significant moves.
• Credit Card debt – As mentioned above the goal is to reduce it by a net $1,000 per month.

My Net Worth Growth

• From September 2014 to October 2014 my net worth increased .5%
• Year to date I am up 6.19%